Tulowitzki To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery

The Rockies received more bad news on the injury front today, as Thomas Harding of MLB.com tweets that MVP candidate Troy Tulowitzki will miss the remainder of the season to undergo surgery to repair the labrum in his left hip.

Tulowitzki, 29, has appeared in just 91 games this season but is hitting a hefty .340/.432/.603 with 21 homers in 375 plate appearances and elite shortstop defense. Both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference.com peg him for more than five wins above replacement despite the shortened season. This will mark the third consecutive season with a significant DL stint for Tulowitzki, who has not topped 126 games since the 2011 season and hasn’t topped 150 games since 2009.

Tulowitzki’s name has been at the center of quite a bit of trade buzz as of late, due in large part to repeated comments about his impatience with losing and a desire to see change in the Rockies organization. Rockies owner Dick Monfort has said multiple times that he has no plans entertain the thought of trading his superstar, although there’s been speculation that Tulowitzki could ask for a trade this winter. He has clarified, however, that he doesn’t want to be traded and prefers to win as a member of the Rockies organization.

The Rockies control Tulowitzki through at least the 2020 season, as he is guaranteed $20MM annually from 2015-19 and is guaranteed $14MM in the 2020 season. His contract contains a $15MM club option for 2021 with a $4MM buyout, making for a total of $118MM guaranteed following the completion of this season.

O’Dowd manages minor league operations only. Geivett is the guy. But this isn’t his fault either. They just have an incredible knack for finding injury prone players, even if they weren’t injury-prone before they got to Colorado.

You mean the guy with the 6 ERA and 64 ERA+ (one of the worst in baseball), bad attitude and no options? That guy? Thanks but no thanks. When reasonably healthy, the Rockies have many better options, and this year is lost anyway. Their org-wide pitching coordinator came from the Marlins last off-season and knows Turner well. Not claiming him was not an accident.

75 pitches is too little. But, Jazerlyi’s research on pitch counts did show increased risk of injury progressively with rising frequency of starts of magnitudes greater than 100 pitches. It’s pitch counts in a single start that matter, not total innings.
I think a team might get some value from sending starters out more frequently for more brief starts, say, a 3-man rotation at 90 pitches maximum.

I think teams would be hard pressed to find SP’s that could go every third day 90 pitches. And if they didn’t..it’d become a major burden finding effective bullpen arms. And it honestly will not happen as long as sp salaries generally demand an attempt at quality starts

I don’t know much about the injury, but if I remember correctly, didn’t Mike Lowell and someone else also have this injury and come back fairly strong? A-Rod was a lot older than Tulo is right now. My hope is Tulowitzki can finally play a full year one of these seasons since he’s possibly the second most talented player in MLB.
I also think the Rockies are more concerned with continuing this tradition of keeping their superstars for awhile; Walker had an extended tenure there, CarGo appears to be going nowhere, they’ve picked up JDL’s options for no reason and Helton was a career Rockie.

They are injury prone players, and always will be. If you trade for them, make sure to have a very good team in place already, and treat them with kid gloves down the stretch in hopes that they will be healthy for the playoffs. If you’re counting on one of these guys to get in, prepare to be disappointed.

It’s very hard to move one of them, with how much money they make, what the Rockies would want in return in terms of prospects and the increasing certainty, as they continue to age, that they not only are going to continue to miss time with injuries but when they do get hurt, it’s going to take them longer to rehab and get back ON the field. The older they get, the more risky the proposition of acquiring one of them gets for a team’s GM. It’s hard to justify all of that money sitting on the DL for weeks and months at a time.

This stinks for Colorado. I really like Tulowitzki and have hoped he wouldn’t suffer the same eventual fate as Garciaparra where he’s continually injured and has a great peak, value-wise, but simply can’t stay healthy enough to have a truly elite career. Nomar was even better before falling off that cliff than Tulo has been so far.

I can’t see how any team gives up blue chip prospects for Tulowitzki or Gonzalez. I realize that, when healthy, these are elite players, But they cannot stay healthy at all, and this problem won’t just go away after they turn 30.

Weird thing is, though, that their injuries are so random. Not one associated with another. Tulo’s had hand, finger, ribcage, groin, and hip. Cargo’s had hand, finger, knee, and ankle. He even had a tumor for cryin’ out loud, in his finger. I don’t think it’s medically defensible to say someone is “prone” to all these random things.

True, but prone or not they take a collective toll potentially… especially the hip injury. Tulo has stated as much in interviews. He certainly CAN be healthy…but he could also turn into a .290 18Hr 3B with a massive contract… and one not playing at elevation

I don’t think it matters what type of injuries they are. They still get injured (albiet randomly) is still prone to me. If they aren’t on the field for 2-3 months a year (doesn’t matter from a freak injury or not) is too much.